Time to vent. Greta was not involved in recent incidents of my not being listened to, other than to hear me out with her grave Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever mien and to lean against my knee with her soft shoulder. Dogs somehow know when we could use a little boost Although this is her blog, Greta doesn’t seem to mind if I take over occasionally. So, venting:

Incident 1: Went to a Cracker Barrel R estaurant http://www.crackerbarrel.com/ for lunch, ordered French fries (yes, I know, not part of healthy diet). Cracker Barrel saved me from eating unhealthy food by serving mushy, sad French fries. Server asked how lunch was, I said main dish okay, but fries didn’t make it. I explained that you need russet potatoes because their moisture content makes really good fries (I read that somewhere). At the end of my explanation, server asked, “Would you like another order of fries?”

I stared at her. “If the first fries weren’t good, why would I want more of them?”

I asked.

“Those are the ones we always serve,” she replied.

If she had been listening, she might have replied, “Thanks, I’ll pass that on to the chef.”

Incident 2: Have been going round and round w/Target Pharmacy over staff’s consistent failure to notify me when a prescription phoned in by doctor’s staff is ready to be picked up.

Prescriptions that have unused refills, no problem. I just call and press numbers for a while, and soon the digitized voice will say, “Your prescription is refillable. For same day pickup, press 1 . . .”

But when a doctor’s secretary must call the pharmacy to authorize refills that were not on the original prescription, I have no way of knowing when the prescription has been filled.

My view: I should not be expected to run to Target daily on the off chance that a prescription might be ready. Why don’t I just call? See below:

Target’s view: “Please hold while we transfer you to a pharmacy team member.” Busy signal. Click. Disconnected.

“This is a consistent pattern with the local Target pharmacy,” I said. “The most recent example is. . .”

Bad move. Jade wanted to focus only on the most recent example. She wanted to apologize and enter the complaint on her computer. I don’t know whether she also planned to click on the form apology letter. I tried to explain that this is a consistent problem that needs to be addressed with a procedural change. But Jade wasn’t listening.

Jade suggested I stop by the pharmacy to find out whether they have my correct telephone number. I had explained that the idea is to make fewer unnecessary trips to Target, not more (and I knew they had the correct number because I receive calls from Target when I am delayed in picking up a prescription). And a correct phone number is useless if the problem is that no one–not even a disembodied, digitized voice–picks it up to call and say, “Your prescription is ready.”

Do they not listen because older women are believed not to have anything worthwhile to say, and may be perceived as whiny and cranky? Or is it that they don’t discriminate, they just don’t listen to anyone?

So, doesn’t anything good ever happen to balance the carping? Yes, sometimes. A Verizon technician arrived and fixed the land line that was going into its third day out of service; Greta came when I called her despite the temptation of a doe and two fawns that bounded across the road no more than 25 feet in front of us; a dear friend sent an unexpected “thinking of you” basket; the zucchini are slowing production. There are things for which we can be thankful.